AP: Wal-Mart fights problems of service, low-end merchandise

http://theolympian.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050529/BUSINESS/505290383/1003

BY ANNE D'INNOCENZIO
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is facing a new reality: Its customers want more than just the lowest price.

The world's largest retailer, which only a few years ago could do no wrong, is now suffering from the kind of problems that have plagued weaker rivals such as Kmart: cluttered stores, merchandise that turned off shoppers, and poor service.

Meanwhile, Target Corp., while some six times smaller than Wal-Mart, is setting a new standard for discount retailing.

Wal-Mart's sales growth has sagged, in part because the Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer, while still a low-price leader, doesn't have products on the floor that attract today's shoppers -- particularly in apparel, home furnishings and consumer electronics.

It also has a problem with slow checkout service, and its stores look uninspiring.

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And mostly is either brain dead from old age or just doesn't give a shit.

I suggest that older people who're "brain dead" were probably "brain dead" even when they were younger. Ageism isn't very reasonable, bro'.

At wally world, earning $6 an hour were "brain dead" slow maybe, alzheimer's patients maybe, but not brain dead.

PC sucks sorry bro

Minimum wage and lack of respect for those who need the jobs makes for lack of respect on the job. The merchandise is all handled with carelessness and even contempt. Cartons and items are broken and yet displayed and sold. Foods in the superstores and SAM stores get the same abuses and many broken seals and storage containers make it unsafe!
If they would instill some real pride in their employees by giving some incentive of good pay and benefits, they could go to the top of the merchant ladder quickly, simply because they are "in place". They are even large enough to have their own medical clinics for employees and their families who can't afford insurance or any type of medical assistance. Being able to stay healthy is one sure way to create the honest happy face and better long term, money saving, employee relations.

It's not much of a surprise that help would have a difficult time truly giving a rats rear end at that point.

When someone works thier butt off and cannot even earn a living wage, they really stop caring when they realize that they're holding two jobs, have no health care and atop of that still can't afford to eat anything and pay the rent at the same time.

In Denver the Government did a study and found that a living wage of approximately 16 bucks an hour would be needed to be able to afford a 1 bedroom apartment, be able to afford car insurance and everything else for what they considered to be a 'minimum standard of living'. 18 for two people and 20 for adding a child into the mix.

Minimum wage in Colorado is the federal minimum wage.

Maybe something is wrong with this equation.

parks and starvation

We hesitate to go to Wallmart largely because, in my area, there are always HUGE lines to checkout. Never worth it for just a couple items, and we never buy the huge number/variety of items that would make the wait worthwhile.

Not that I mind an additional excuse to not shop Wallmart.

and in the afternoons, at peak times, there are about 4 open.

Also, the automated check-out lanes were always having problems and brain-dead sheep were trying to pay with checks in the automated lines.


:eyes:


Glad I don't shop there anymore. I love my Target Guest card. ;)

the number of bush bumper stickers in Wal-Mart parking lots? So that's where the brain dead sheeple go to shop, always. It figures.

I should go once in a while just to get a gallon of milk or some gum or something.

It is so worth the price of membership. It pays for itself.
(I am a little biased as I am an ex-Price Club employee)

As for Target, I do shop there occasionally and I like the fact that it isn't like Walmart one bit. (Clean and Un-cluttered)

My boycott has led others in my family to not patronize Walmart and Sam's Club.

The nearest one to my house is about 150 miles away. I hear there will be one closer in a couple of years though. I'll be first in line to join.

...is Walmart's requirement that store managers reduce operating expenses each and every quarter. When store first open they generally have plenty of people on the checkouts and store managers reduce operating expenses by increasing worker productivity (as workers get trained to do their jobs, they can do their jobs faster) and reducing hours worked in other departments. After a while, all the easy gains have been wrung out and the only places left to cut back are on the cashiers and cleaning crews. Even here in Alabama, grumbling is setting in as people stand in long lines a Walmart where only four or five out of twenty or thirty registers are open even at peak times. The Walmart way has reached its limit and perhaps gone a bit past it. I hope the backlash is huge.

and the merchandise is cheap. Once I thought I would get an outdoor thermometer. They had several styles on display. All by the same company and all shoddy -- none of them read the same temperature. Where I lived at the time I had few shopping options (an isolated small town in Mississippi). So I selected a thermometer whose temperature appeared to be in the middle of all the thermometers.

I much prefer Target, even K-Mart, over WalMart.

for a thread that will be entitled "Low Price Isn't Everything." I'm going to ruminate a bit, and LBN isn't a ruminating kinda place.

I hate Walmart because the stores are crowded, cluttered with low-quality crap, & claustrophobic. The aisles are too narrow. Give me a clean, well-lit Target with better quality merchandise every time.

And, Walmart has no books except for bodice-ripping romances & Bush books. :puke: A least that's true of the one near me!

but mostly GOP connections keep me out!

:nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity:

...playing Barber's "Adagio for Strings".

Wal-Mart had a policy in place that guaranteed no long lines. If lines started to firm at one checkout, they'd open more almost instantaneously. Another Wal-Mart promise broken. It was just TOO EXPENSIVE to keep back up personnel at $6.00 an hour and no benefits handy for when business peaked. So....now, at just about every Wal-Mart long lines abound. Nobody wants to wait in line for fast food, and that same premise applies to Wal-Mart.
Many of it's stores are old, dirty and cluttered. I don't particularly like Target either, but if I have to make a choice, Target always wins.
The Walton family has single handedly destroyed American "Mom and Pop" stores in America, put millions in this country out of work in their quest for "always low prices, always", and passed on to the American taxpayer the cost of their employees health care and other services.
If the Sam Walton's idly rich heirs slip down a few notches on the "World's Richest" list, I won't lose one moment's sleep over it. Screw 'em. None of them have done a thing in their lives but live off Sam Walton's brainstorm and they're well off enough to keep that idle rich tradition going for generations.
Poor fricking Wal-Mart. Boo-hoo. :cry:

least quality. She finally has come around when it comes to home furnishings and clothes for herself. She now sees that a blouse from Target will stay in good shape and look nice much longer than that nasty thing from walmart. It may cost a few bucks more, but it is worth it. Getting her to stop buying groceries at walmart will be tough. She does save money there.... and it is the same food.

Often have much better quality at much less cost. They have a lot of junk too but one expects that a "used merchandise" business!
Too much WM stuff is worse than "used" and that in respect to food, drugs, and life necessities is criminal!

the "out of date" mark and WM snaps it up cheap.

When I did river running kitchens I had to stop buying stuff at Sam's cuz the fruit would rot in 3 days and the bread was always 2 days away from stale.

Have her start checking the "use by" dates and I think you'll have an easier time convincing her another market will serve her family better.

I am noticing that my local supermarkets all have sales that meet or beat WM's prices with food that actually has a decent shelf life left on it. I read my ads and don't see WM as a deal at all anymore.

Publix is even better.

advance from within...one of the best supermarkets ever...don't shop anywhere else.

in most grocery stores. My sister didn't believe me, so she asked at her Super Wal-Mart. They hemmed and hawed and then told her the truth: it was a grade lower than she would get at other area stores.

and maybe saving 3 cents on laundry soap.. Big Whoop!!.. Walmart gives me the heebeejeebees. Crowded, cluttered, and just plain ugly..

I HATE the fact that our CLOSE Target store felt the need to relocate to be nearer Walmart (outskirts of town), and even though I grumbled that I would not shop at Target when they moved, I still prefer to drive past that Walmart...right over to Target..

Actually, Mom & Pop stores may make a comeback, as the behemoths overreach, and end up putting each other out of business..If gas prices stay this high, people may start seeing the benefit of "close-by" , smaller stores.. Makes no sense to burn $1 worth of gas to save $.08..

That's pretty funny. Of the people I know that don't shop there (myself included) the reason has nothing to do with quality of merchandise or long lines. They appear to be in denial.

... customers are affecting their business or not. Noone notes at all that perhaps their core customer is perhaps noticing that Walmart is no friend of theirs when it comes to whom it spends it's capital on politically to get in office.

Maybe, just maybe, these customers are smarter than the press and analysts give them credit for and are shopping elsewhere, not only for price considerations, but also to reward other businesses that aren't as interested in destroying the middle class, as Walmart appears to be.

to shop at Walmart if only it looked more "inspiring" or had more electronics.

There is absolutely nothing WM can do that will ever tempt me to set foot in one of their stores.And I feel that I am joined by thousands, if not millions of fellw citizens with the same outlook.


Wonder when the MSM will finally acknowledge this?

We have had WM try to build in my neighborhood three times. Twice they've been turned down.

We're still working on stopping number three. MKJ

http://www.no72ndavewalmart.com/

finally catching up with wal-mart.I know neither I or any of my friends will shop their.I'm sure the stories about wal-mart workers being the biggest reciepient of state funded medical services isn't going to help them any.It doesn't look good when one of the riches families in the world is on welfare.

what else they gonna do since they have no intention in hell of paying livable wages or giving reasonable benefits. ?

Walmart's response to the charge that their service is crappy and their workers are not helpful will NOT be to try to improve morale by raising wages, making more employee-friendly schedules, adding benefits, or treating workers with respect.

Instead, they're probably working right now on a program to force workers to show up even earlier and stay even later to attend "pep rallies" where they'll have to memorize more "I love working at WalMart" cheers.

separated by 100 miles.


we visited each one once. both of them were messy and junky. the first time we put down our stuff and left because the checkout line was too long. the environment does not encourage the best behavior from customers either.

Here in GA, we have a WalMart in almost every medium to large size town. I can go to 2 super centers that are only 10 -20 minutes away from my house! There is a major distribution center in a nearby county. Not to mention the Sam's Club in my city and the abandoned WalMart site out near the mall. Within a 45 minute to 1 1/2 hour drive, I could probably find 5 or 6 other super centers.

I don't shop at WalMArt. I've been to WalMart maybe 5 or 6 times, tops.

I have a Sam's Club membership through work but I've never purchased anything from there.

Sam's is just as bad as Wal-Mart, but Costco is MUCH better. If they have a gas station there, I know people who swear that the membership is worth it just for the lower gas prices!

It was a mess and the lighting was so dreary I got a headache.

careful shoppers. Get rid of materialism (even low wagers are struck by materialism, thanks to slick advertizing). The US is a throw away society. This might change when the economic shit really hits the fan and anarchy walks the streets.

tell 10 friends

In a big hurry one day for some screws and Wal-Mart being the closest store I went in there and picked up a package. Got them home and half of them were duds. Some didn't have the slots for the screwdriver and some didn't have any threads. Cheap merchandise will do 'em in.

it's not like fireworks where there's an understandable margin of unpredictability -- it's freakin' screws for cryin' out loud! you can actually see if they are defective or not.

that's just infuriating.

I look at them and say, "Wal-Mart is EVIL!!"

If the person is a progressive, they already know it and I'm just reminding them that Wal-Mart is fundamentally corrupt.

If the person is a *cough* Christian (it's so hard to really tell these days), then I explain that W-Mart gets most of its crap from China, and China has the highest abortion rate in the world, percentage-wise, and they also commit forced abortions. By supporting W-Mart, you support China, and by supporting China, you tacitly support abortions.

I get some wide-eyed stares in response to my arguments, but no one ever tells me I'm wrong.

Wal-Mart is EVIL.

yeah, the anti-abortion fundies probably have a hard time with that one

eom

is not always the cheapest. A lot of people just assume they ALWAYS have the lowest prices. I have a friend like that. She has a Sam's card and buys all her food there. For Thanksgiving she bought a turkey there for about .89/ lb and was bragging about that great price while all the major chain grocers around here were selling them for about .40/lb.

But it was probably a crappy specimen, shipped in from some wage-slave farm hundreds of miles away from the point-of-sale, where safety and health concerns are secondary to shaving a few cents off the cost of the operation.

It's possible to get a nice fresh free-range turkey from a local butcher...if you HAVE any local butchers in your area anymore--but you're gonna pay out the ass for it.

Wage-slave-farm turkeys are, unfortunately, what you can get.

Which is why we usually have shrimp on Thanksgiving.

Boycott them today!

Here's my two cents.

I live in Oklahoma, which seems not to have any zoning laws. We have two Wal-Mart Supercenters in Lawton. There are two in Norman. Now these towns have a population of about 80-100K and Norman is seasonal because most of the population consists of OU students.

I noticed that the employees seem to try, but they are not going to put forth an effort when they are paid $6 an hour. Remember too, that Wal-Mart will let you work on 28 hours a week and say that it is full time.

I also notice that the stores within driving distance have different standards of cleanliness and organization. The new Wal-Mart is always clean, while the one in Chickahsa is disgusting.

Remember, there was a movie made about a girl living in a Wal-mart. I think she was played by Natalie Portman. The Wal-mart was set in Oklahoma - go figure.

Anyway, I haven't been to a Wal-Mart in six months. It is hard in the mid-west, but I am spending a little extra money on local chain grocery stores and ordering online.

There's just too much crap in the store. For years at least the store was clean but now they don't even try to keep the aisles clear of boxes and junk. The experience is similar to visiting the dump of all dumps, Home Depot. It doesn't seem like a specific problem to my local Wal-Mart, either, because I've seen many others that look the same way. The few Target stores I've seen do a better job at keeping their stores looking nice.

A couple of years ago I heard on the TV a piece about Walmart's shoppers. For the last 20 years most people buy by Credit Card and pay on the card at the end of the month. Thus most stores have fairly even purchasing by consumers through out the month (People go when their have the time). Walmart notice a trend starting in 2001 and continuing in 2003 (The time period of the Piece) where you had more and more people buying things on the 1st and the 15th of each month. The only reason for this is customers at Walmart are NOT buying as needed or when they have the time, but when their have the cash i.e. buying right after they get their paychecks.

Walmart has aimed itself directly at the Working Class, it does NOT aimed its stores at the Upper Middle Class but the Working Class (And to a limited degree the true poor). It is this group that was living payday to payday in 2001-2003 and who now seems to be NOT buying. Could it be that they NO LONGER HAVE THE MONEY TO BUY??? i.e. these buyers did NOT switch from Walmart but no longer have the money to buy PERIOD?

The Clutter stores etc are complaints from people who do have other options i.e. Upper Middle Class people who CAN SHIFT to another store. While Walmart does NOT discourage these types of customers, its aim is at the working class, and as the Working Class Income falls, so does Walmart's fortunes.

My point here is that Walmart's sales have gone DOWN, the reason may NOT be how Walmart is selling but that its target market may be maxed out financially and no longer can buy ANYTHING. If this is true thinks about how this will affect the economy over the next few months.

increase in the number of Dollar stores, and those like Big Lots has cut heavily into WM business.

I know I won't shop in WM, but I've gotten some great prices on food items, and other things at some Dollar stores. Better deals than I could have at WM, and I don't have to support their terrible business practices.

we raise the minimumm wage? But won't we all perish or the very least become communists?

What, are you French or something?

.

industrial style buildings run by unhealthy abused and underpaid slave-like 'workers'.

Sounds like shopping in the former Soviet Union. Perhaps they should try a name change to GUM.

This is so true, if they would just ask thier associates what customers are talking about they would understand. These buyers probably don't even shop in the stores or even try to keep up on the kinds of things people are looking for.


Perfect example. I work at a store that is the prime supply for anything in my town for comptuers and computer related accessories. We are also located in the middle of 3 major colleges and 2 major tech schools. Top items requested over the past three years:

Laptops/accessories
ipods/accessories
bluetooth equipment
palm pilots/pocket pc's
mac software/books/computers
and Game magazines



guess what, after three years of waiting at my store, we just now got a couple of ipods, and a few laptops.

the stuff is of good quality.

The housewares and other durables tend to have a style and flair to them that Wal-fart's products just don't have. I've bought dishes and linens there, and guests have sworn that I must have bought them in some funky retro shop--I don't correct them.

Also, Target sells affordable, durable, and good looking kid's clothes. Much nicer than the cheap crap in Wal-fart.